13 Ways to Make Friends

They say it takes a village to raise a child. Well, it also takes a village--at best a supportive community, and at the least a few very good friends--to keep a person sane and happy. All of us need companionship, which is exactly why teenagers are texting their friends in the middle of dinner (TMI, BFF, OMG ...), and why people who didn't own a personal computer last year now have profiles on Facebook, My Space, and other social-networking sites.

Beyond Blue reader Rock wrote: "I am 56 years old and it's a comfort to me to read how many of you have experienced what I have in feeling lonely and not able to make friends and connect with people." So many others have articulated the same. Even those in happy marriages or committed relationships, even those surrounded by people who know their name. In our hearts, we all crave for the deep connection that a graced friendship can offer.

Maybe the first trick to finding friends is to befriend ourselves, and to become comfortable with silence, because no one has the power to make us feel okay with ourselves but us. But, lest we stay quiet for too long, here are 13 techniques to meet new friends, which I think everyone can benefit from, because, as I learned in Girl Scouts a few hundred years ago (where I didn't make any friends...some are silver and the others are old, I mean gold.